During the volatile teen years we are told repeatedly, “Be careful who your friends are.” I found this to be sound advice because if you’re not wise, you might find yourself kicked out of 7th grade biology class for sniffing crushed Smarties on a dare.

Usually, by the time you’re middle-aged you’ve managed to surround yourself with enough dull people to keep yourself out of trouble – but there are exceptions.

After landing this awesome gig of being a blogger for hjnews.com I was bursting to tell my friends. After gushing about my plans and ideas and waiting for my friends to join in the happy dance with me, I was surprised by the reaction of one of my closest friends.

He said, “Uh-oh.”

I said, “Uh-oh? That’s all you have to say about my cool news?”

“Yes. You write about your life right?”

“Yea, so?”

“So, we’re in your life.” He pointed around the room at all those who had already braved to be my friend before I had a public forum. “Now we’re going to have to be careful about what we say and do around you because you might write about us.”

I hadn’t thought of that.

And the more I thought about it, the more I liked it. I liked it a lot! I had power and influence! (Well, sort of.) Finally, I get to have the last word! Ha ha ha!

So, beware my friends. Behave my neighbors. Be kind mi familia. I’m watching, listening, waiting for those golden nuggets of human interest to surface so I can wax poetic about it to the world.

I’ll try to be discrete – change names and places to protect the innocent, and the not-so-innocent. But, you never know. I might just slip up and rat someone out on accident, like I just did with Matt. Oops!